This invention relates to a slide door-contained battery-charging method for charging a slide door-contained battery with electric power supplied from a vehicle body of to a slide door of a vehicle.
In recent years, automobiles having a slide door slidably mounted thereon have had a high-function design. With this high-function design, for example, a power window has been mounted on the slide door, and it has become necessary to supply electric power to the slide door so as to drive the power window. Therefore, in recent years, there have been proposed various vehicle slide door power supply apparatuses for supplying electric power from a vehicle body to a vehicle slide door of a vehicle. One example of such vehicle slide door power supply apparatuses will be described briefly.
In FIG. 7, a body-side feed contact 4 is mounted on a vehicle body 1. When a slide door 2 is closed, this feed contact 4 is brought into contact with a door-side feed contact 3 mounted on the slide door 2, for an electrical connection thereto. The body-side feed contact 4 is connected to a battery 5 mounted on the vehicle body 1. A door-inside controller 6 is mounted in the slide door 6. The door-inside controller 6 includes a slide door-contained battery 7 which is chargeable, and the door-side feed contact 3 is connected to this slide door-contained battery 7. When the slide door 2 is opened so that the door-side feed contact 3 is out of contact with the body-side feed contact 4, the slide door-contained battery 7 supplies electric power to a pressure sensor 8 and a pressure-sensitive switch 9 which are mounted on the slide door 2.
FIG. 8A is a schematic view of the body-side feed contact 4. FIG. 8B is a schematic view of the door-side feed contact 3. In FIG. 8A, reference numeral 10 denotes female terminals (female connector). In FIG. 8B, reference numeral 11 denotes male terminals (male connector) which contact the female terminals 10 for the electrical connection thereto when the slide door 2 (see FIG. 7) is closed.
In the above related art, during the time when the door-side feed contact 3 and the body-side feed contact 4 is kept in contact with each other, the slide door-contained battery 7 is always being charged. Therefore, this is not an efficient charging method, and besides this shortened the lifetime of the slide door-contained battery 7. On the other hand, even when the slide door-contained battery 7 is in a fully-charged condition, the supply of electric power to the slide door 2 continues, and this burdens the battery 5 mounted on the vehicle body 1.
This invention has been made under the above circumstances, and an object of the invention is to provide a slide door-contained battery-charging method in which the efficient charging is effected, and the burden on a battery on a vehicle body is reduced.
According to a first aspect of the present invention, which is made in order to solve the above problems, there is provided a slide door-contained battery-charging method for charging a slide door-contained battery, mounted in a slide door, with electric power supplied from a vehicle body of a vehicle to the slide door slidably mounted on the vehicle body; characterized in that when a load in the slide door is in a stopped condition, and a charging rate of the slide door-contained battery is below a predetermined value, the slide door-contained battery is charged with the electric power.
In the slide door-contained battery-charging method of a second aspect of the invention, trickle charging is effected when the charging rate of the slide door-contained battery is above the predetermined value.
In the slide door-contained battery-charging method of a third aspect of the invention, the electric power is supplied from the vehicle body to the slide door by a mutual induction operation of a primary coil, provided at the vehicle body, and a secondary coil provided at the slide door.
In the first aspect, there is adopted the charging method in which when the load in the slide door is in a stopped condition, and the charging rate of the slide door-contained battery is below the predetermined value, the slide door-contained battery is charged with the electric power.
In the second aspect, the trickle charging is effected when the charging rate of the slide door-contained battery is above the predetermined value.
In the third aspect, the electric power is supplied from the vehicle body to the slide door by the mutual induction operation of the primary coil, provided at the vehicle body, and the secondary coil provided at the slide door.